"I'm sure she is just sleeping," suggested Bruce Banner. "Romanoff, sleep in until nine o'clock? Not likely," Tony Stark said as he shook his head. "Maybe she's sick?" "No, last night when I came up from a midnight training session, she was up watching Barton's latest mission status. She was still awake when I turned off the lights at four," added Steve. Tony stared, open mouthed, at the amount of energy Steve put into his training sessions.

Thor, Bruce, Tony, and Steve all sat at a round table in Avengers Tower, discussing the strange behavior of their fellow teammate, Natasha Romanoff. She had been acting off ever since her partner and best friend, Clint Barton, left for a highly dangerous mission, and hadn't been seen, or heard from, for a month. "Maybe we should go check on her," suggested Tony, sounding far from worried, with a malicious glint sparkling in his eyes. "Stark, leave her alone. Besides, if you walked in while she is sleeping, you won't come out alive; the only person who has been in the same room as her while she is asleep and not been stabbed is Agent Barton, and I'm not sure I'm in the mood to drive you to the hospital," glared Bruce. Tony laughed, then shrugged. "I'll put on my suit, and then check on her," he announced, standing up and exiting the room. "You want to wait until we hear him scream like a girl before we go pry Romanoff off of him?" Bruce and Thor agreed with Steve's idea.

Tony put on one of his lighter suits that allowed him more agility and made him quieter; a stealth suit is what Pepper called it; a genius idea is what Tony called it. Tony crept to Natasha's room, where he found her door closed. Praying it wasn't locked, he slowly reached for the handle, turning it gently so he didn't make any noise. He braced against the door, pushing it open as quietly as he could. As his eyes adjusted to the gloom of Natasha's room, a large grin spread across his face. Natasha was wrapped safely in the arms of Clint Barton, who had bruises and gashes on every patch of bare skin Tony could see. A few of the major wounds had been cleaned up and covered in sterling white gauze; Tony automatically assumed it had been done by Natasha; Clint didn't trust doctors. Natasha's long, dark red hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and she wore Clint's favorite sweatshirt. They were both sleeping peacefully, and despite what he really wanted to do (which was wake them up and terrorize them) he stalked back out of the room, shutting the door quietly behind him. He waited until he was out of earshot of Natasha's room, before screaming aloud and running to tell the rest of the team.